“Millions of jobs could be created by: drilling for more domestic oil and gas now, which would keep money here that American drivers send to the Middle East; taxing dollar-yuan conversion to offset China’s currency market intervention, undervalued currency and 35 percent subsidy on its exports; genuine healthcare reform that lowers drug, insurance and administration costs, and tort burdens, rather than subsidizing a system that costs 50 percent more than private systems in Germany and elsewhere; and replacing the corporate income tax and elements of the personal income and social security tax with a value-added tax.

America has the tools at hand but U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner fails to grasp the gravity of the situation and President Barack Obama isn’t ideologically disposed and lacks the stomach to use them. Sadly, we aren’t hearing much about those solutions from the cacophony of Republicans seeking the presidency either. Tax cuts and deregulation, vouchers and other Tea Party hobby horses are palliatives, not problem solvers.

Policymakers must address the world as they find it, not as professors and presidents pontificate it should be. America isn’t suffering from a poverty of ideas but shortage of leaders with the vision and courage to see what is possible and act.”